Please Comment: Athens-Nafplio-Delphi-Meteora-Crete (15 days)

June 2nd is unrealistic. You won't be able to do all that in one day. Just without any breaks is more than 6 hours of driving.

June 3rd and 4th are also very busy

Generally speaking you want to see too much in too little time, you will spend your days on the road but certainly not visiting the Peloponnese, except through a windshield.

Skip destinations or expect a mutiny from your passengers :))

Thank you JoLui. That’s discouraging. I took that day from a reputable travel agency’s itinerary and basically copied it. Online it looks like a 3.5 hour drive from Athens to Olympia without stops, so with an early-ish start it seemed feasible. I know that online directions and timing can be misleading. Is that the case here?

Your June 2 itinerary is not Athens→ Olympia but:

Athens → Corinth Canal → Epidaurus → Nafplion → Mycenae → Olympia.

Which makes a big difference

If a travel agency, reputable or not, offers all this in a single day, forget it, it's not a travel agency, rather a delivery service like FedEx. I'm sure Jerry Garcia would have declined this travel proposal :))

The tour of Olympia is the following day. The idea is to arrive the evening of June 2 and start fresh in Olympia the next morning. Still impractical?

Hello,

We actually took that 4 day/3 night CHAT tour that you are basing your itinerary on. We really enjoyed the tour despite having never been on one before. And that's because the tour guide filled the time with commentary not just at the sites, but also as we were driving. For example: this is the mountain where this Greek God did this thing, etc. Since you enjoy Mythology and History, I think you would find value in the tour.

It is, however, a LOT of driving, which is why you might decide to either stretch out the timeline, or just bite the bullet and take the tour rather than driving yourself. Trying to do this yourself at the pace the tour can do is going to be pretty exhausting for the driver in your family.

On June 2nd, the stop at Corinth Canal was about 15 minutes. Nafplion was a bathroom break in a parking lot basically. All of our time touring was spent at Epidaurus and Mycenae and those stops did not feel hurried.
The one day that was a little short was at Meteora because we did not have time to hike. Your plan of two nights there should give you the option for hiking.

June 1st: Cape Sounion is great, but I would skip it in favor of visiting the National Archeological Museum. Again, if you like history and mythology, this is an amazing museum. I visit it every time I am in Athens. Plus, you are going to have all that driving the next few days.

If you decide to take the tour instead of driving yourself, you would have an extra day for either the National Museum or Cape Sounion.

Regarding your other days, I have only stayed in Rethymno and Chania on Crete. I preferred Rethymno because we were able to get a wonderful family run hotel across from the beach and within a couple of minutes walking distance to everything in town. The old town of Chania was lovely but you will need to drive or take a bus if you want to get in the water. But I have only been to Chania once. I'm sure others have more options to offer.

I hope this is helpful. Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip! Greece is one of my favorite countries.

Why not shave a day off Crete and add it into your Peloponnese road trip? (Unless of course your flights are booked!)

Both Olympia and Meteora are the "far" destinations of your roadtrip phase. Cutting one out makes it a slam dunk otherwise.

Thank you all for the terrific feedback and helpful suggestions. The updated itinerary no longer includes Olympia. Instead, we will drive from Athens to Epidavros and Mycenae; overnight in Nafplio; and then depart for Delphi via stops at Nemea, Argive Heraion and Ancient Corinth. We will overnight in Delphi and tour the following morning before heading off to Meteora for two nights. Then off to Crete and two nights in Heraklion as a base for palace of Knossos, Dikteon Cave, and maybe an afternoon winery visit. Then to Chania as a base for additional day trips and just some R&R. Will consider Rethymnon as an alternative.

Thank you all for the terrific feedback. Keep it coming.

I think it's a good idea to spend the night in Naufplio. We found it to be an enjoyable, quiet and peaceful place to spend an evening.